In bad news for coach Simone Inzaghi and Inter Milan fans, Romelu Lukaku is set to miss at least two weeks after that he picked up a flexor injury on Sunday during trainings. After scoring on his comeback at the opening match against Lecce, the former Chelsea striker failed to score in the two games against Spezia at home and Lazio away last Friday, when Inter Milan lost 3-1 against Maurizio Sarri’s side.
Paramount+ is the only place to watch every minute of every Serie A match this season, not to mention select games in Italian. Sign up now with offer code ITALY to get a special one month free trial. A subscription also gives you access to other sports content including every UEFA Champions League and Europa League match, the NFL on CBS, and countless movies and shows. Get it all free for one month with promo code ITALY.
The Nerazzurri will have to deal without Big Rom first on Tuesday against Cremonese, but more importantly against AC Milan on Saturday and against Bayern Munich next week in the first match of the UEFA Champions League 2022-23 group stage (you can catch every Champions League match live on Paramount+). He will undergo more medical tests next week, but his comeback is likely to happen in the week before the international break, when Inter Milan will face Viktoria Plzen in their second Champions League match and will play against Udinese before the only break until the beginning of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
How will Lukaku be replaced?
Inzaghi planned to make some changes over the next weeks anyway, considering the busy schedule Inter are facing. The squad faces six games in less than twenty days. After the injury to Lukaku, the Italian coach will definitely have to lean more on both Edin Dzeko and Joaquin Correa. Deko, the former AS Roma striker, is expected to play alongside Lautaro Martinez as an immediate replacement, rerprising the roll he had last season when he arrived at the club to replace Lukaku. But Correa is also likely to start at least one match in the next week, even if though Inzaghi considers his best role to be as an option to come in in the second half as a replacement who can run against the tired legs of opposing defenders. This injury will definitely have an impact on Inzaghi’s choices, and make the managers job that much harder, presenting challenges even though all these players know each other very well since they played the whole of last season together. Equally importantly, Lukaku’s injury will slow down the process of trying to integrate him in the new tactical system under coach Inzaghi and given how competitive the top of the table is likely to be in Serie A, that’s not good news at all for the Nerazzurri.
